The curves underfoot and overhead, and the monumental colonnade splicing up views out to the river and the Loop make this one of my favorite pedestrian passageways in the city. Curving around the base of the tower, it breaks away from the rigid rectilinear grid of the surrounding streets and buildings, but keeps you in touch with them because they’re always in view. While I like being a little piece in the mix of people on foot, on bikes and in trains, boats and cars on downtown streets, here it’s walkers only—not even bikes—which makes it feel more serene or intimate than an open, busy sidewalk. You’re very clearly in a city, a great, buzzing city, but removed from it at the same time. I admire the building overall, although I know a lot of people will tell you they hate it, if only for the big sign on the river side of the tower. Before that sign went up in 2014, people would have been more likely to respond to the look and style of the building and this passageway. But since the sign went up, most people’s opinions start with that, either the size of the sign itself or how they feel about the person whose name is on that sign. That’s too bad, because the building is a fine 21st century addition to the streetscape, and this passageway around and through it is a generous treatment of public space.
Words by DENNIS RODKIN, Chicago
Reaction Form - Fifteen
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